As is apparent from the name, the fund has a sustainable theme. The socially responsible screening excludes from the index, for example, companies involved in the manufacture of controversial weapons or in breach of the UN Global Compact Principles. Specific criteria are followed regarding investing in companies whose business activities involve weapons, tobacco, alcohol, commercial gambling or pornography.
Both the index and the fund exclude companies with proved and probable coal reserves and/or oil and natural gas reserves used for energy purposes. This exclusion differentiates SEB Sustainability Global Index Fund from, for example, SEB Ethical Global Index Fund.
The fund manager seeks to track the return of the MSCI ACWI Socially Responsible Index, based on SEB SRI Policy C, a reinvesting SRI global equity index. The index is derived from the MSCI All Country World Index, calculated by MSCI and based on MSCI ESG Research. The fund aims to track the index, mainly by investing directly - via a physical replicating and optimising strategy - in the underlying components of the index.